Gov’t Looking to Increase Use of Video-Linked Technology to Secure Witness Statements

Minister of Justice, Hon. Delroy Chuck, says the Government is looking to make video-linked technology a more central feature of the courts, particularly to assist in securing testimony from witnesses.

The technology has already been installed in three courtrooms at the Supreme Court and the St. Andrew and Montego Bay parish courts, as well as additional courtrooms across the island, while others are being retrofitted with the equipment.

In addition, two mobile units, which are equipped to facilitate witnesses giving evidence remotely, have been acquired.

Minister Chuck, who was addressing a ceremony for the handover of the Witness Care Strategy and Action Plan at the Ministry’s Constant Spring Road offices on Wednesday (October 28), said that the increased use of video technology in the courts will encourage more witnesses to remain with cases.

“If you [the witness] don’t necessarily want to face the accused, you don’t want to be known that you are in Jamaica, or that you’re in any particular community, we are now providing the opportunity to say to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions), ‘I do not want to be in court; I want to be in a remote location’,” he pointed out.

“There is no need now for witnesses to be fearful or feel threatened that when they come to court the friends of the accused will be looking at them.

“The opportunity now exists for witnesses to say ‘I don’t want to be in court, I want to give my evidence from a remote location’ and this is possible with technology. I’m happy to say that we’re utilising it and we want to utilise it even more, so that witnesses really feel comfortable about giving evidence,” he added.

Minister Chuck said that witnesses are a very important part of the justice system.

“We cannot effectively deliver justice in either the civil or the criminal court without brave and courageous witnesses, who are willing to come forward and tell the truth and give a frank, open explanation with information of what took place at the scene [of an incident],” he said.

“Without effective care and assistance to the witness, who will be needed to come to court to explain, to give the evidence, we can’t go forward, we can’t make a successful case and conviction,” he stressed.

The Witness Care Strategy and Action Plan are geared at creating a more comprehensive, integrated and people-centred approach to the treatment of vulnerable victims and witnesses.

The publications are the products of a 2019 Witness Care and Protection Conference and were made possible under the Justice Undertakings for Social Transformation (JUST) project, implemented by the Government of Jamaica, through the Ministry of Justice’s Justice Reform Implementation Unit, with support from Canada’s Department of Justice and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).